Exactly right. If you are looking for a model or option configuration
that is in very tight supply, good luck. New Car Dealers are in the
business of extracting the maximum they can from a car sale and they
know what is hot. They have staff trained at doing just that, wallet
extractions. They have software to make sure they don't mess up and give
you too good of a deal. If you are looking for a common vehicle then the
current sales environment is on your side, so taking a slow and firm
approach can pay off. They can't pare the deal down to nothing on all
their cars and still stay in business. They will pare down on common
models you can get anywhere but hot models they actually boost the
prices above msrp since they can.

Jetta TDI Wagons are hot and typically sell ABOVE msrp.

Mark

steve@eurocampers.com wrote:
> I tried this when I bought a new car last summer.
>
> It was worthless.  I was looking for a 6 speed and no one had them.
> I also found that all of the dealer's online inventories were
> incomplete, outdated, or didn't have enough information.  You will
> also be added to all of their mailing lists and you will get junk
> mail forever.
>
> I might try this again if looking for a more common vehicle, but the
> best tactic I found was to show up with cash or your financing
> already in place and play hardball.  I test drove the car, and made a
> really low offer.  I was turned down, but the next day the salesman
> called and offered another deal.  I agreed to a "bottom line price"
> and asked him to fax their offer.
>
> The offer came in with $200 paperwork fees, and was $200 more than
> our agreed price.  I declined.  He called back later and told me the
> owner made a one time exception and waved the fees.  Actually, he
> lowered the price of the car $200 and kept the paperwork fee on the
> invoice.
>
>  Steve
> SKL Enterprises Inc.
> http://EuroCampers.com
>
> 888-797-5994 - orders
> 636-337-7700 - customer service
>
> On Mar 20, 2009, at 6:21 PM, pickle vanagon wrote:
>
>> Go to the dealer to look and decide what you want, not to buy.
>> Then get
>> prices from dealers by email.  Each dealer has an "internet sales
>> rep".
>> Call and get their email.  This person will give you a lowish price
>> without
>> any negotiating via email after you've told them exactly what
>> you're looking
>> for (doing this in an email is probably best).  Get these email
>> quotes from
>> the 10 dealers closest to you.  Take the lowest quote, and email it
>> around
>> to the rest giving them a chance to beat it.  Repeat until all the
>> reponses
>> are that you have a killer price and they can't beat it.
>